


of invocations and the heat

by insoobnia



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, iwaoi on the background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-16 11:15:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21270149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insoobnia/pseuds/insoobnia
Summary: Hanamaki and Oikawa make a bet, or try to, regarding the usually impassive Matsun.Meanwhile Matsukawa is trying and failing to deal with his feelings.





	1. Area 51

The descent to chaos, as he likes to call it when he feels like being dramatic, starts on a hot and humid summer day. It was the kind of day where you saw people getting irritated over the most menial things and overall just acting dumb. He’s never been affected much by such weather, or so he thought. 

Despite the obvious disgust for being sweaty and sticky, there’s this lethargic mood that suits Matsukawa just fine. And nothing really important happens during those kinds of days either, that’s a fact. And once again, _ that’s what he thought, _ until the moment he opened the door to the rooftop.

“...area 51?!” He manages to hear Maki blurt out as he spits rice all over Oikawa’s shirt, which usually would be really funny if it wasn’t for the fact that _ what he said _ meant something for the third years that was a little different from what you might think it implies by common knowledge. Yes, something beyond aliens and people running around like naruto. Although that’s certainly a respectable practice that Matsukawa supports, and that originally initiated this whole mess within their friends. 

In a very simplified way, it meant they had to “do their worst”, which for them is actually doing their best and most.

“Did someone invoke area 51?” He asks, suddenly more interested in the conversation than the bento that he brought for lunch. From what he can get by looking at his friends, and if he heard right, Oikawa is making a bet with Hanamaki while Iwaizumi is ignoring them; which was probably for the best. Or it was until Oikawa stupidly decided to invoke one of the few agreements of their friend group that has led to too many accidents and them getting banned from an arcade _ and _a karaoke bar (that they obviously should not have been in considering they are underage) in the same night. 

Oikawa, after whining to Iwaizumi about the fact that his uniform is ruined and how disgusting Maki is, answers Matsukawa with a suspicious glint on his eyes. 

“Yes, yes I did!” He looks as smug as someone with rice all over their shirt can possibly be. 

“Forget it, it’s a dumb bet. What would you even gain from this?” Iwaizumi finally intervenes, being the voice of reason as he usually is. 

“Exactly! And that’s why Maki can’t refuse, it’s just a silly bet for fun!” Oikawa responds, still looking smug. 

“Pfft… I thought we only used that one for important stuff, it’s a deal” Hanamaki responds with a grin, shaking Oikawa’s hand to seal the deal. 

As he sits down between them he arches an eyebrow in question, “And the bet is…?” he asks disinterestedly, because he was naive enough to think this bet wouldn’t involve him in any way.

“Maki has to seduce you until you fall in love with him!” Oikawa flaunts like it’s the most brilliant idea. And under his perspective it might be, but from Matsukawa’s point of view, not so much.

“Or just get a reaction out of you, which is hard enough by itself” Maki adds while wiggling his eyebrows, only partially joking since Matsukawa is indeed someone hard to read or make react given his chill persona. Which is not how he feels right now, at all.

Later on he would blame it on the weather, but he’s tired, dumb, and he’s already been having a hard time these past few weeks, so he just stands frozen for a second. And then he loses it, his last brain cell. He turns to look at Oikawa straight in the eye and says “I call the Jenny right”.

The others look confused for a split second, which to be fair, makes sense since it is not an actual right that they had established, like the area 51 invocation. But it is indeed a reference to a conversation that took place between Oikawa and Matsuwaka a few years ago and that neither of them brings out because it was emotional and pretty much the only secret they keep from their best friends. When Oikawa gets it, he pales. 

“Hey, hey! What’s that? Why don’t I know of that one?” asks Maki with a frown on his face, clearly feeling at disadvantage now that he knows their friends have a secret pact he doesn’t know of.

“Bet is canceled” Oikawa says serious and in a hurry, and bless him, he notices his mistake right away. “I’m sorry Maki!” he tries to recover with a smile, but everyone can see he is uneasy, “Your bet is going to have to be beating Iwa-chan at arm wrestling after all!”.

Matsukawa does his best not to tense up at the look Hanamaki is giving him, but it’s hard considering how hot and uncomfortable he feels all of sudden. He pulls at the collar of his shirt awkwardly and eats in silence for the rest of their lunch.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Somehow the day continues on like it usually does, thanks to Oikawa and Iwaizumi who were able to disperse the weird mood with their bickering, and by the end of the last class it’s almost like nothing happened. But it did, and he’s going to have to face both Oikawa and Hanamaki on his own at some point. 

Tomorrow, is what he tells himself. And his plan is going just fine until he gets intercepted by Hanamaki outside the lockers room. 

He was taking his sweet time on purpose to avoid having to talk about his… outburst of some sorts. He might not have done something extreme like screaming at Oikawa, but it definitely was out of character for him to intervene and be opposed to something as idiotic as a bet.

“Hey” His friend acknowledges him with a tilt of his head, “Walk me home?”. The wording makes his heart skip a beat, and he knows he’s doomed. Matsukawa could refuse, he knows, but he doesn’t like leaving things tense and unresolved. Especially when it comes to Hanamaki. 

“Sure” he answers like he normally would, and he holds onto that sense of normalcy so he can get through this. 

They walk in comfortable silence for a while, but he can see from the corner of his eye that Hanamaki is thinking deeply about something. “Are you going to tell me or what?” he goes straight to the point, in a way that would be too blunt coming from anyone else, but it’s just like him.

“You’re spending way too much time with Iwaizumi” he replies easily, making the other both snort and smile at the same time. He counts that as a win.

“Maybe” he concedes, waiting for Matsukawa to actually answer his question.

He goes through every possible answer that’s both sincere even if not the total truth in his mind, but nothing seems credible enough, and is not like he can openly talk about Oikawa’s ugly crying when he decided that his not so platonic feelings for Iwaizumi had to stop. 

At that time Iwaizumi had his first girlfriend, who Oikawa called “Jenny” out of pettiness because she had blond dyed hair and the habit of using english words in the middle of her sentences to sound smarter. Not like Matsukawa would know, since he never met her, but after the awful break up he’s resentful both in accounts for Iwaizumi and Oikawa, so he takes it as an absolute truth. 

No one besides Matsukawa knows that Oikawa called her that, since it was during their winter break and he only found out about the whole thing because Oikawa called him crying at 4am to talk about everything and anything. That was probably when their friendship solidified into what it is today, and he’s grateful for that.

And anyways, how could he relate his freak out to the Jenny thing without exposing himself entirely.

“It might not be a big deal for most people, but I don’t like that kind of attention” He lies, like a big fucking liar. 

“Oh” Hanamaki gets it, immediately, because that’s just how he is. An open minded guy who spends most of his time looking for memes and educating himself on the internet, so of course he’s going to think that Matsukawa was uncomfortable with the bet because he’s not into people seducing him either in a romantic or sexual kind of way, even if it’s meant to be a joke. 

But that is not true at all and he really didn’t think this through. He can blame his slow thinking on the heat, but lying to his best friend? That has nothing to do with the weather.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you made it here, thank you for reading!  
I will try to finish this soon, I was originally planning on writing a one shot but I have a lot of ideas and I'm not sure where this is going.
> 
> Jenny is actually a reference to studio killer's song hehe
> 
> Have a nice day!


	2. Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matsukawa never thought it could be this easy, honestly.

The conversation on itself isn’t going to change anything between them, which is to be expected, and he  _ is _ glad Maki didn’t push it while they walked home together that day. But a lie is a lie, and if there’s anything that Matsukawa’s grandma taught him when he was a flimsy little kid, is that lies always come bite you in the ass. And that’s exactly what happens sooner rather than later.

“You have to tell him” In a really uncharacteristic way, Oikawa goes straight to the point. It’s Saturday morning practice and just when he finally gets a moment to catch his breath, he’s put into another awkward conversation that he is not prepared for.

“If you mean that his socks don’t match, I think he already figured it out” He tilts his head towards Iwaizumi, who’s looking absolutely gobsmacked at his feet. He can hear his teammates teasing him in the background. Maki is grinning so big his face looks like it might split any second from now, and he can’t help the fond look he sends his way.

“You know I don’t mean Iwa-chan” He chimes in with his high pitched voice, but then he looks at him with something akin to pity in his eyes and Matsun realizes he’s being obvious. He has to make a conscious effort to feign nonchalance. 

“Whatever you might have assumed…” he starts uncertain since Matsukawa knows there’s no point in lying. The evidence is pretty damning, but he can’t bring himself to just outright say it.

“You like him,” Oikawa says it like it just occurred to him, and it feels weird having anyone other than himself calling him out like that. Especially since he knows this is probably not a new discovery for his friend; since he’s oddly (read _ annoyingly _ ) perceptive. But, then again, it’s just a fact. “I just don’t get why you did it, he wasn’t going to take it seriously or know if you actually… “

“If I fell for him?” He finishes for him in a low voice. “I know, but I just couldn’t stand it. For him, it might be just a joke. But for me, having to constantly pretend he doesn’t have  _ that  _ kind of effect on me, it was going to be exhausting, more so than usual. I’m almost there, there are just a few months before we finish high school and I can try to get over him. I can’t risk ruining our friendship now, I want him to stay in my life after all of this... ” he gestures around them, “is over”.

It’s a sobering thought.

“I think this is the most I’ve heard you talk since the last time you got drunk” Oikawa tries to lighten the mood, but fails terribly. “I’m sorry I suggested the bet”, and even if he doesn’t doubt his sincerity, the dejected expression on his face does make him feel better.

“Why do you think I have to tell him, though?” he asks and notices Oikawa’s flinch before his eyes widen. 

“Hey slow toads, what are you doing over here? Is our captain finally getting too old to keep up with his kohais?” Hanamaki teases, looking at Oikawa over Matsun’s shoulder. The younger can feel his friend’s breath tickling his neck and suppresses a shiver. 

Oikawa responds with a shrill scream, looking so offended it almost makes him laugh. Still, as his captain gets up to continue with practice while claiming how  _ youthful he actually is _ , he squeezes Matsukawa’s shoulder as he passes by in a comforting way. All he feels at the gesture is dread. Hanamaki probably talked to him.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“I talked to Oikawa,” Is the first thing Hanamaki says as he comes up to him the following Monday morning. He used to consider being in different classes a misfortune, but now he’s thankful he can avoid this conversation a little longer. 

“I figured” He responds almost robotically. The hallways are mostly empty since the bell already rang and even though that would normally make him feel unease, it actually has the opposite effect on him given the circumstances.

Of all the ways he ever entertained confessing, doing it by mistake was not one of them. But in all of his fantasies, Hanamaki liked him back and called him by his first name, so Oikawa Tooru getting involved in his love life and exposing him was a lot more realistic.

“At first I didn’t get it, I spent the whole weekend thinking about it, actually. Iwaizumi’s ex was pretty shitty to him and all, but it didn’t make sense that you would react that way and after Oikawa explained how he felt about it, I made the connection… I realized you lied. Did you think you had to hide it from me?” There’s something weird in his voice, but Matsukawa who usually relies on body language, can’t look him in the face to figure it out. He would rather pay attention to where he’s walking so he doesn’t accidentally loses his footing and falls on his face. 

“Matsun…” he whispers since they’ve already made it to Class nº3. “Look at me, please”. 

Those words might as well be magic since he looks at him right away, and what he finds in his friend’s face was not what he was expecting at all. There’s something he can’t quite pinpoint in his eyes, it reminds him of melted butter and honey. That, and Maki’s pink cheeks and the slight trembling of his bottom lip, hits him like a trainwreck.

He doesn’t dare to hope, but the way he is looking at him practically screams “Kiss me” and his hands start getting sweaty despite himself. 

“Can we talk about this after school?” He whispers, uncertain. And as his luck would have it, Hanamaki’s teacher decides to call him inside at that moment.

“Hanamaki-kun, If you don’t go inside right now, I’m putting you absent.” The teacher says from inside the classroom, looking unruffled by the two boys who are standing by the door as if frozen. 

“Yes… No! I mean. Sorry. I’m going” He replies flustered, making most of his classmates snicker as he goes sit at his desk in silence.

“Oh” He breathes a moment later, it suddenly hits him that he’s never read Hanamaki wrong before, that there’s almost no chance he’s wrong about this. Realizing he might not be alone on his feelings makes him feel weird, giddy. He snorts at his line of thought and tries to go back to his own class before it’s too late, despite knowing it’s a lost cause. Much like himself.

  
  


* * *

  
  


They dance around each other for the remainder of the day, and it should be at least awkward since they haven’t talked about it, but Maki looks ecstatic for the most part, and the way he teases and smiles at him is just _ exhilarating _ . He can’t pretend he doesn’t like it when he brushes against his side and calls him an imbecile as they make it to the school’s entrance. 

“You’re in an awfully good mood for someone who’s been lied to” Matsukawa decides to bring it up before he loses courage, and they start walking home together as they usually do.

Hanamaki hums, barely sending a glance his way before he continues walking down the street. “I don’t appreciate that you lied to me, but it’s… ok, I guess. It’s not like everyone can make Matsukawa Issei _ blush _ ”.

He startles at his words, stopping for a moment to bring his hands to his cheeks. They feel warm and he’s sure the discovery only makes him blush even harder. In the end, he decides there’s no point in hiding it. 

“I’m glad I make you feel special” he deadpans, “But are we going to actually talk about it or…?”

“We’ve never needed words before” Maki shrugs, but slows down so they’re walking side by side. “But I guess this could be an exception. Tell me why you lied”.

The words, despite the suspicion he’s not getting rejected, are hard to say. He takes a deep breath before saying: “I didn’t want any misunderstanding between us, but I also didn’t want to tell you the truth”.

“And what truth is that?” Hanamaki teases, a grin forming on his face.

Instead of answering that, he takes his hand into his own with a confidence he doesn’t feel. “Don’t act like you don’t know”. His best friend looks up at him in surprise, more used to the teasing than the serious side of Matsukawa.

“You didn’t feel uncomfortable because of the flirting, you felt uncomfortable because it would be  _ me  _ doing it” Maki replies in a taunting way, but the squeeze on his hand contradicts the banter. It’s reassuring.

“Maybe so” He murmurs back, coming to a stop when he hears the other laugh. He lets go of his hand to brush the hair away from his temples, taking in how the sun makes him look so good despite the sweat. Hanamaki’s breath catches in his throat when he catches the stare Matsukawa is giving him, leaning in slowly, enough to give him the chance to pull away if he wants to stop him from bringing their mouths together. It takes a moment for both of them to catch up with what is happening, and when they do, their eyes flutter closed and their lips slide together, slow and tender. It doesn’t feel like a first kiss in the sense that they just naturally fit together, and that makes Matsun smile against his lips.

Hanamaki holds onto his sleeve in a way that feels much too shy for the usually unabashed wing spiker, and his heart skips a beat. With his thumb he strokes over his jaw, tilting his head and kissing a little more desperately now, trying to make it last. And despite the kiss becoming languid, there’s heat underneath it, a promise for more to come.

When they finally part, Hanamaki’s face is completely red and they both grin stupidly before hiding their faces on each other’s shoulders. Matsukawa relaxes into his hold, boneless, and decides right there that summer is his favorite time of the year.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had lots of fun with this fic,   
so I'm planning on writing more matsuhana in the near future.
> 
> Even though it was really short,   
I hope you enjoyed reading it!


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